My grumbling gut signalled cancer

AS ONE of Britain’s best known TV journalists Nicholas Owen is used to breaking bad news.

Nicholas Owen credits cutting-edge research with helping him survive a kidney tumour

He was the first to reveal that Prince Charles had admitted adultery, he led ITV’s coverage of Princess Diana’s funeral and also delivered nightly updates on the Gulf War.

Yet nothing could prepare him for the moment a doctor broke the news that he had kidney cancer.

He says: “My wife sent me off to see a specialist who was a friend of ours because I was complaining of what I called a grumbling gut.

“He examined me and said, ‘I think you are as fit as a flea but why don’t you have a scan just in case’.”

Today there is a much better outlook if you are diagnosed with kidney cancer. Many of these cancers are very, very survivable.

Nicholas Owen

The ultrasound scan revealed a 2cm tumour on his right kidney.

Initially Nicholas, 66, admits he was in denial.

“They talked about tumours and growths but somehow the brain is quite dissociated from really bad news until you have to face it.”

That came the next day when a surgeon first used the word “cancer” and advised him the only option was surgery to remove the kidney and see whether it had spread.

The consultant wanted him under the knife as quickly as possible but Nicholas had other plans.

He wanted to delay surgery for a week so he and his wife could join close friends on the holiday they had planned.

“My wife thought I was mad. Most people would probably think I was mad but I look back on that holiday with great fondness.”

At the back of his mind was the fear that it might be his last walking holiday.

“Kidney cancer is a bit of a devil if it gets away from the kidney. It has also proved to be very, very difficult to treat as it is not amenable to many of the usual treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy.”

He was lucky. Straight after the holiday in 2002 Nicholas had an operation to remove the diseased kidney and as he came round from the anaesthetic he was greeted with the news that the cancer was still in the early stages and there was no sign it had spread.

The surgeon was optimistic that removal of the kidney would solve the problem and every follow-up check since has been clear.

Doctors are often reluctant to talk about “curing cancer” but 10 years without a hint of it returning is as close as it gets.

Every year in the UK almost 10,000 people learn they have kidney cancer.

Smoking and obesity increase the risk and it does sometimes run in families, suggesting a genetic link.

If caught early it is easy to treat. Warning signs include blood in the urine and pain in your side but other symptoms such as tiredness, lack of appetite and weight loss, can be vague so it is often not picked up until it has spread.

As a result almost half those who are diagnosed will die within five years.

Those statistics may sound grim but better diagnosis and treatments have seen survival rates almost double in the past 40 years.

Nicholas is passionate about the need for ongoing research and dreams of the day that cancer becomes a less serious condition.

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could talk about having a touch of cancer as if it were no more than pneumonia or even lumbago,” he says.

That’s why he is one of thousands of cancer survivors backing the Research Kills Cancer campaign run by Cancer Research UK to raise money for life-saving studies into all forms of the disease.

“Without the research that had gone into getting a really good scanner I would have been in deep trouble and since I was diagnosed there have been some really stonking advances. Today there is a much better outlook if you are diagnosed with kidney cancer. Many of these cancers are very, very survivable.”

One of the biggest breakthroughs has been targeted therapies such as Sutent and Afinitor which home in on cancer cells and block the signals they use to grow and spread.

Now Cancer Research UK scientists based at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital are trying to unpick the genetic code of individual kidney cancers to identify the patients most likely to benefit from the new treatments.

EXPERTS believe this type of personalised medicine will not only save money by pinpointing the patients who will respond to these expensive new therapies but also spare them unnecessary treatments and potential side effects from drugs that won’t help.

Last year Cancer Research UK scientists made another breakthrough with the discovery that not only is each patient’s cancer genetically different, no two samples from the same patient are identical either.

This means that cancer cells don’t simply divide and multiply, they follow the laws of evolution and are constantly adapting to changes in their environment. The discovery may explain three questions which have perplexed researchers: why is cancer so diffi cult to cure if it has spread, how does it eventually become resistant to all treatments, and how can you predict a patient’s progress?

Professor Charles Swanton, who heads the research, believes the answers lie in identifying the genes closest to the trunk of each cancer’s family tree in the hope of destroying them before they have a chance to develop a network of genetically diverse branches and stems.

Professor Swanton is just one of thousands of researchers funded by Cancer Research UK, which spent £332million on research last year alone.

Around 40 per cent of this money goes to projects such as his which shed light on the biology of cancer.

Nicholas says: “Some might say research is a bit dull, just a lot of people in lab coats but I think, ‘Wow, look at all these really bright people toiling away’.

“They are going to make so many great advances.”

He also knows that science saves lives. “Research helped develop the scanner that revealed I had cancer and research helped perfect the surgery that allowed doctors to remove it.

“I’m alive because of research.”

For more information and to support Cancer Research UK’s pioneering research to find a cure for all cancers visit cruk.org